Yes, There’s Kanye West-Themed Crypto-Currency

In the future, every major celebrity will have a crypto-currency named after him or her.

Bitcoin, the world’s most popular crypto-currency, is based on an open-source protocol; and because it’s peer-to-peer without a central server or bank, it’s theoretically possible for anyone with the right combination of tools and knowhow to use the underlying code as the foundation for their own crypto-currency. Which is exactly what a bunch of anonymous developers have done with the new “Coinye West,” an upcoming crypto-currency named after rapper Kanye “I Am a God” West.

Coinye West isn’t an official production of Kanye West, and the developers are staying anonymous because they probably fear the inevitable copyright lawsuits. (Of course, if the currency hits the online market and proves a success, it’s always possible the real Kanye West would drop any suit in exchange for a massive amount of Coinye West coins—every hip-hop artist on the planet might claim to drive a Maybach, but how many can claim a currency?)

“DROPPING JANUARY 11, 2014. 11 PM EST,” read a note on Coinyewest.com. “No premine, no screwed up fake “fair” launches, shyster devs, muted channels, and f**ked up wallets,” it helpfully added. “We will be releasing password protected, encrypted archives containing binaries and source for the wallet and daemon BEFORE LAUNCH, with the passwords to be released at the specified time.”

Just to emphasize the supposed fairness of this particular crypto-currency, the note repeated: “We will work with multiple pools to orchestrate a PROPER and FAIR release.” A chat room is available at irc.freenode.net.

Technical details for the crypto-currency include:

Algorithm: Scrypt

Max Coins: 133,333,333,333

Block time: 90 seconds

Difficulty Re-Target Time: 12 hours

Block Rewards: 666,666 COYE

Every 100k blocks, the payout halves

The recent spike in Bitcoin value has sparked a much broader discussion about the validity of crypto-currencies as a medium of exchange. First launched by the pseudonymous “Satoshi Nakamoto” in early 2009, Bitcoin is designed to never exceed 21 million Bitcoins (current supply stands at roughly 12 million), and the code ensures a consistent rate of currency generation. In December, Bank of America issued a research report suggesting that Bitcoin could become “a major means of payment for e-commerce” on its way to emerging as “a serious competitor to traditional money transfer providers.”

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Author Bio

Nick Kolakowski has written for The Washington Post, Slashdot, eWeek, McSweeney's, Thrillist, WebMD, Trader Monthly, and other venues. He's also the author of "A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps" and "Slaughterhouse Blues," a pair of noir thrillers.